. >> mitt romney kept saying this country could be on the road to be more like greece if we did .ot get our arms around it the unemployment rate remains high. are you optimistic in the short term about our country's future. >> it is hard to be. i tried to be. if we can get this resolved, this fiscal cliff situation, and have a pathway to seeing the deficit be reduced, cannot do it overnight, if we can see there is a path, a trajectory of slowing down the growth of spending to the point you can see the deficit will ultimately go away over a reasonable time, people will start investing again, hiring again, and i spoke to a business group yesterday and asked if they havwould hire just because they get a tax credit for hiring people. they said no. if you see the deficit will go away and there is hope we are on the right path to fiscal sanity, will you then hired? yes. we will have markets for our products and services and then we will need more people. we are stuck right now because all we have done for a year and a half was kick the can down the road. i voted against the act a year- and-a-